For players, summer league often represents a chance to showcase new skills or audition for a roster spot. For Vaughn, this week has become an opportunity to try on the head coach's shoes — in this case, casual white sneakers — and see if he likes them.

So far, they fit.

“It's fun,” Vaughn said. “It's good fun to get a group together in a short time and get them to play together. That's the test and the joy of it.”

Typically measured and soft-spoken, Vaughn led by more than example Sunday, as the Spurs rode big games from Kawhi Leonard (23 points), Cory Joseph (18 points) and Eric Dawson (12 points, 13 rebounds) to a victory.

Recognizing a set the Hawks were running later in the game, and that Joseph was out of place, Vaughn shouted again: “Seattle! Seattle! Seattle! Get there Cory!”

Coming from Vaughn, it sounded more of an exhortation than a criticism.

“He's just more vocal (as a head coach),” Leonard said. “He takes it seriously, like he does during the season. He's the head coach here. Everybody's listening to him.”

Vaughn did not comment Sunday about Orlando's coaching search, directed by new Magic GM Rob Hennigan, a former Spurs staffer. It is clear, however, that Vaughn's is a star on the rise.

When Vaughn went looking for work two summers ago — after a year-long sabbatical from the NBA — the Spurs rushed to make a spot for him on Popovich's bench, even though there were no new openings.

Had Vaughn been interested in the front-office side of the game, the Spurs would have created a job on general manager R.C. Buford's staff.

At the time, Popovich compared Vaughn to another former Spurs point guard who went on to become an NBA head coach.

“Jacque Vaughn is a star,” Popovich said then. “You can see the same qualities in him that you saw in Avery (Johnson).”

Whatever happens next for Vaughn, he will be sure to send a thank-you card to Popovich, who he credits for helping to jump-start his coaching career.

“It's been unbelievable,” Vaughn said. “I got a chance to play for him. I saw how good he is. Now to be in meetings with him, to see how he thinks, his approach — he's been gracious to let me be involved with that.”

Orlando could still be weeks away from naming a new coach.

For now, Vaughn is focused on the laid-back, no-pressure games unfolding on the UNLV campus this week, where he is a head coach in khaki shorts.

“It's summer league,” Vaughn said. “Expectations are a little lower.”

Depending on the direction the Magic's search takes them, that might not be the case for long.